Nike+ iPod Nano Review
I’ve been running with the Nike+ setup for my iPod Nano since this past December. Since then, I’ve used it for nearly 50 runs & 365 miles. (You can see the results on my Nike+ page.) After all those miles, I think it’s time for a review.
The setup consists of a RFID receiver and an accelerometer that either goes inside a hollowed out space in the sole of a Nike+ compatible shoe, or like in my case, is attached to the top of the shoe with some type of shoe pouch. The accelerometer measures the swing of your foot & calculates your current average pace & distance covered. Uncalibrated, Nike claims it to be around 90% accurate. I’ve calibrated mine with a GPS watch and found it to consistently no more than mere feet off per mile.
Without a doubt, the two best things about the setup are the price (it’s only $30 if you already have a iPod Nano!) and the ease of use – I originally purchased the setup to track my runs while training indoors (where GPS does not work), but have continued to use it now that I’ve been running outdoors, simply because it’s so easy. Whereas with my Garmin Forerunner 201 I had to connect a USB<->Serial adapter to it, run a program to download the runs, another to parse the most current run out of it, upload the xml file to a site (none of which I was happy with), I can now just plug in the iPod to any USB port on a machine running iTunes & iTunes takes care of retrieving & uploading the data to the Nike+ site, where graphing is automatically done for me.
I have no major gripes about the device whatsoever, but if I were to nit pick some things I don’t like, those would be:
- Lack of pace alerts (too fast / too slow)
- Lack of elevation data
- Lack of data for the area I was running in (GPX file)
- The Nike+ site is Flash based
- I can’t visually check my pace/time/distance (also a plus)
Outside of those, my first accelerometer only lasted ~40 hours. In doing some research, I see that every once in a while one of these is a dud. Apple sells a replacement accelerometer for ~$20, but I wasn’t able to find one in the area & had issues with it being 2/3 the cost of a new sensor and accelerometer package. I did find a site about cutting open the accelerometer case and soldering in a new battery, but luckily for me, Buffalo Fleet Feet
had no problems exchanging mine for a new one. The run data is stored on the Nano itself, so nothing was lost when I connected the new accelerometer.
When I originally purchased the Nano, I also purchased an Apple branded Nano Armband for it. I was pleasantly surprised to see it was designed to accommodate the Nike+ sensor hanging out of the bottom of the Nano. And while it’s not a Nike+ specific gripe, I should mention that the smell of sweat persists in the armband, no matter how much I wash it.
The armband does annoy me at some times. When I’m running with a jacket, I like to keep it underneath my layers & this makes it very difficult to see the display / set my distance. With shorter short-sleeve shirts, the headphone cord can hang out the bottom of the sleeve, but this can be remedied by flipping the whole setup upside down.
I have mixed feelings about the requirement to use iTunes to retrieve data off the device, but do love how easy it makes the whole process. In looking for alternatives (namely for when I was using Linux as my desktop OS), I stumbled upon a site that gives directions on manually pulling the run data off the Nano and how to integrate it with their site: Runometer.
I was very happy to find a Nike+ iPod Stats WordPress Plugin to integrate with my website. You can find the results on the right hand sidebar. The plugin has worked well for me, but I may at some point tweak it to generate weekly, monthly & yearly stats. The only negative I have about the plugin was that I was surprised to see one of the suggested directory permission setup suggestions for its installation said to chmod 777 it’s install directory.
The Nike+ has a concept they call a “power song” – a song you can designate ahead of time as such & access at any time by holding down the center button of the Nano for a couple seconds. The documentation doesn’t mention how to activate it, but since I’ve discovered this, rarely use the feature. If you do use it, the graphs of your run indicate when you’ve played the song.
Since the release of the Nike+ for the iPod Nano, Nike has subsequently come out with a stand-alone wrist band, named the Nike+ SportBand. It requires no Nano, has a display & uploads it’s runs directly via a built in USB connection. While the biggest negative reviews I’ve read on it focus on the orientation of the display being off by 90 degrees from how you’d normally expect to view it, runners competing in USATF sanctioned events can use the device without fear of disqualification. (The USATF has controversially banned the use of headphones in all it’s sanctioned events.)
Garmin has also come out with their Forerunnercoat, 405, which looks to be a slick device that may also meet my needs, but costs quite a bit more.
Overall, I think the Nike+ iPod Nano is a wonderful setup and recommend it to anyone considering it.